A Spell of Winter

'Tense, dark and intensely gripping . . . written so seductively that passages sing out from the page ' Sunday TimesCathy and her brother, Rob, don't know why they have been abandoned by their parents. Alone in their grandfather's decaying country house, they roam the wild grounds freely with minds attuned to the rural wilderness. Lost in their own private world, they seek and find new lines to cross.

But as the First World War draws closer, crimes both big and small threaten the delicate refuge they have built. Cathy will do anything to protect their dark Eden from anyone, or anything, that threatens to destroy it.

'An electrifying and original talent, a writer whose style is characterized by a lyrical, dreamy intensity' Guardian'Stops you in your tracks with the beauty of its writing' Observer'Has a strong and sensuous magic' The Times'Her spellbinding, lyrical prose is close to poetry' Daily Mail

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Imprint: Penguin

Published: 17/10/2019

ISBN: 9780241987506

Length: 320 Pages

RRP: £8.99

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Reviews

A marvellous novel about forbidden passions and the terrible consequences of thwarted love. Dunmore is one of the finest English writers

Daily Mail

A hugely involving story which often stops you in your tracks with the beauty of its writing

Observer

An electrifying and original talent, a writer whose style is characterized by a lyrical, dreamy intensity

Guardian

Tense, dark and intensely gripping . . . written so seductively that passages sing out from the page

Sunday Times

Her prose is poetic in its emotional range and intensity

TLS

Unsettling love and stifled horror create and then destroy the claustrophobic world of this lush, literary Gothic set in turn-of-the-century England. In true Gothic fashion, terror, violence and eroticism collect beneath every dark surface. . . . A finely crafted, if disturbing, literary page-turner

Publishers Weekly

It bears the distinctive lyrical beauty of its predecessors . . . Helen Dunmore is an unusually fine writer. There is a strong and sensuous magic to A Spell of Winter

Gill Hornby in The Times

One of our finest writers

Philip Pullman

Immensely sad, quite beautiful, and deserves to be read by all lovers of good novel